Trump says the U.S. will not attack Iran before the Nov. 3 midterms, and the naval blockade stays in force.
He posted the pledge on Truth Social on Thursday, Oct. 8, a day after reports that the Pentagon told Central Command to finish preparing major combat. He called talks with Tehran “productive.” Axios notes his past statements about Iran have not always matched what he later did.
The blockade of Iranian ports stays in force. Oil jumped on the strike reports, and diesel, at $6.20 a gallon on Oct. 5, is above its 2022 record.
October 9, 2026 · Six stories, illustrated
- Brent crude, on the strike reports
- $104.60 up 4.4%
- U.S. crude (WTI) settled at
- $92.19 after a 3.91% rise
- Gasoline, per AAA
- $4.36 a gallon, down from $4.41 a week earlier
$6.38 Sept. 28$6.20 Oct. 5Above the record
$3.81 Feb. 23Last prewar week
July 14Blockade resumes
Dots are one weekly reading a month (the last Monday), plus Oct. 5, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as the issue’s chart plots them; short weekly peaks between them are not shown. The dashed rule is the 2022 record, $5.81 a gallon, set the week of June 20, 2022; June 27’s reading, $5.78, is just under it. July 14 is when the blockade of Iranian ports resumed.
- 130
- ships diverted
- Three
- disabled
- 13
- commercial vessels destroyed
Also in place: more than 4,000 Marines and sailors recently sent to the region aboard three warships led by USS Makin Island. Israel votes Oct. 27, a week before the U.S. midterms, and Axios reports a renewed war could shape that election.
Trump also claimed 22 million barrels moved through the Strait of Hormuz in one night, none to or from Iran. Nobody has independently verified that figure. Before the war the whole strait carried about 21 million barrels a day, per Kpler.
“After the midterms the chances of it happening increase significantly.”An Israeli official, to Axios
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An ICE officer shot a man in his car, with a 5-year-old in the back seat, in Manhattan’s Marble Hill.
It happened about 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, during an arrest operation. The child was not hurt. The man was conscious and being treated at a nearby hospital, NYPD said, and is expected to survive. DHS has not said what led the officer to fire.
Marble Hill is part of Manhattan, but it sits on the Bronx side of the Harlem River, which is why Fox News placed the shooting in the Bronx.
ManhattanThe BronxHarlem RiverMarble Hillpart of ManhattanThe reporting places the shooting in Marble Hill and gives no street, so the neighborhood is outlined and no point is marked. Borough lines: NYC Department of City Planning.
DHS said an officer fired his weapon and listed the man’s alleged criminal history, but did not say what prompted the shots. An FBI evidence team is assisting DHS investigators. NYPD officers were not on scene.
Bars officers from firing at the driver of a moving car unless they reasonably believe the person poses an imminent threat of death or serious injury.
Trying to drive away does not count.
Not knownNo account so far says whether this car was moving.
- The charge
The Manhattan district attorney can bring state charges.
- The move
The officer can move the case to federal court and claim immunity if he honestly and reasonably believed firing was necessary. That defense has worked in New York before: in 2004 a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a state manslaughter indictment against a DEA agent over a fatal Brooklyn shooting.
- The footage
ICE body-camera footage is not guaranteed to be made public: an ICE committee reviews it, and the ICE director can withhold it.
New York’s attorney general will not take the case: the office’s special unit for police shootings handles only deaths, and it excludes federal officers.
“Get ICE out of our neighborhoods. Get ICE out of our hospitals. Get ICE off our streets. Get ICE away from our children.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on X. He says he will ask Trump to end all ICE enforcement in the city.“New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, calling for a full federal accounting
Still open: what threat, if any, the officer faced before firing. No footage of the seconds before the shots has been released. CBS News counts at least 30 shootings by DHS agents since Trump’s second term began on Jan. 20, 2025.
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Hurricane Isaias strengthened to Category 2 and is heading for a Gulf Coast landfall late Friday, Oct. 9.
Alabama, Florida and Georgia have declared states of emergency, and mandatory evacuations are in effect. Forecasters expect the storm to strengthen before it reaches the coast, and Florida faces its first hurricane landfall in two years.
AlabamaGeorgiaFlorida- State of emergency: Alabama, Florida and Georgia
- Mandatory evacuation orders in parts of these counties
Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties Zones A and B, mobile homes and low-lying areas, from noon or 12:30 p.m.
Walton County Zones A, B and C, from noon
Franklin County All barrier islands, Alligator Point, mobile homes and RV parks, from noon
The orders took effect Thursday, Oct. 8, and cover only the zones and places listed, not whole counties; the Census boundaries include the bays behind the barrier islands. The reporting lists these five counties and does not say whether others issued orders. It gives no forecast track or landfall point, so none is drawn.
Hurricanes are rated 1 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center’s ranking by sustained wind. A Category 2 storm carries winds of 96 to 110 mph, and Category 3 starts at 111 mph. Isaias reached Category 2 on Thursday, Oct. 8.
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The donor says Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $100,000 credit-card request was “pay to play.”
Eric Deters, the Trump donor whose texts show Guilfoyle asking him to pay $100,000 toward her American Express bill, says he never paid. Guilfoyle is now U.S. ambassador to Greece. Her attorney says the texts are not authentic; CBS reports White House officials were told they are.
Still Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Greece, she texted Deters:
“honey please I need you to get this done for me today”
She was asking him to pay down her American Express bill.
Her confirmation hearing, six days later. The Senate confirmed her Sept. 18.
In another, Guilfoyle wrote:
“What a nightmare you’ll literally cost me my ambassadorship stop writing.”
CBS reported that White House officials were told the messages are authentic. Her attorney disputes that they are real.
- Asked toward her American Express bill
- $100,000 Deters says he paid nothing on this request
- Paid over the years, Deters says
- $300,000 for earlier events, separate from the request
- Pledged, per The Wall Street Journal
- Up to $1 million more from him if her efforts succeeded
“I didn’t have $100,000 to spare or I actually would have been a dumbass enough to do it.”Eric Deters, to CBS
- Covers nominees. On July 3, 2025, Guilfoyle was still a nominee.
- Bans corruptly asking for something of value, even if no money changes hands.
- Needs an official act. Since McDonnell v. United States (2016), prosecutors must tie the ask to a specific official act, not just access.
“It’s not the gospel, it’s not the gospel for me.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Athens, who repeatedly declined to discuss it“I don’t know exactly who you’re talking about.”
Vice President JD Vance, asked about an ambassador seeking a debt payoff for access“At best horrible optics, and at worst, something that’s worthy of a termination.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican
Still open: Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, asks for her records by Thursday, Oct. 22. It is a request, not a subpoena, so she is not compelled to answer it. Committee subpoena power rests with the Republican chair.
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Vance and the Labor Department froze green card sponsorship for Microsoft, Adobe and six IT outsourcing firms, alleging fraud.
Vice President JD Vance announced the suspension on Thursday, Oct. 8. Labor Secretary Sonderling said it blocks new filings and halts pending ones. Hours later, Trump gave Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
- Microsoft
- Adobe
- Cognizant
- Infosys
- Tata
- Wipro
- HCL
- Capgemini
- H-1B The main U.S. visa for skilled foreign workers. It is temporary.
- PERM Labor Department approval, usually the first step to an employer-sponsored green card. Frozen at these eight firms.
- Green card Permanent residence
“You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”Vice President JD Vance
It laid off 6,000 U.S. workers last year while getting 6,300 H-1B visas and almost 3,000 green cards over the same period. BBC put the H-1B figure at 6,800 applications.
80% of its H-1B filings last fiscal year were extensions or status changes for people already on staff, and it pays them like other employees doing the same work. Immigration firm Ellis puts its median H-1B salary at $155,000.
Labor Secretary Sonderling said Microsoft and Adobe have received about 230,000 H-1B approvals and about 100,000 permanent labor certifications since 2009.
Still open: Vance set no end date for the freeze, which came a day after Homeland Security proposed a $70,000 fee per student in OPT, the program that lets foreign graduates work in the U.S. after school. He also named nine universities for a J-1 visa fraud probe.
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The Justice Department asked a D.C. grand jury to indict Cassidy Hutchinson for lying to Congress.
The question is whether she lied to the House Jan. 6 committee in June 2022. No charge has been filed yet.
Hutchinson was an aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. A grand jury, a panel of citizens, decides whether there is enough evidence to bring charges. The Civil Rights Division is running the case instead of the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, an unusual choice that CBS says has not been explained.
Her best-known claim, that Trump lunged at the steering wheel of his SUV on Jan. 6, 2021, was secondhand.
- The SUV driver
Told the committee Trump never grabbed the wheel and never lunged into the front seat.
- Ornato
Said he first heard the story from her public testimony and did not believe he had told it to her.
- Robert Engel
The head of Trump’s Secret Service detail did not recall Trump reaching for him or being in the room when Ornato spoke to Hutchinson.
CBS reports it is unclear which of her answers prosecutors are examining.
Still open: prosecutors plan to bring more evidence and witnesses before the grand jury later in October 2026, Punchbowl News reported. A DOJ spokesperson said the department “does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations, or the lack thereof.”